Katz Media
Katz Media was a French-Norwegian company that was founded in 1996 to market the Pippin-compatible Katz Media Player 2000 console in Europe.Company Backgrounder, Katz Media SARL. Archived 1997-07-01. Katz Media SARL was based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France and was focused on hardware. Its parent company, Katz Media Holding Limited, was founded on March 28, 1996 and based in Dublin, Ireland.Profile: Katz Media Holding Limited, Kompany. Accessed 2018-01-21. Katz Media AS was a subsidiary of Olympia Finans AS of Oslo, Norway and was focused on software.Katz Media continues with Pippin, Telecom.paper. 1997-07-25.Apple Grants Katz License To Use Pippin Technology by Richard Hudson, The Wall Street Journal. 1996-06-05. History (KMP 2000) console with Pippin Expansion Unit.]] On June 4, 1996, Katz Media became the second company to sign a license agreement with Apple Computer to distribute Pippin systems.Katz Media Signs Worldwide Licensing Agreement for Apple's Pippin Technology, Katz Media SARL. 1996-06-04. Archived 1997-07-13.Katz Media AS Signs Worldwide Licensing Agreement of Apple's Pippin Technology to make the world's best multimedia technology available to "the rest of us.", Apple Computer. 1996-06-05. Archived 1999-02-20. Katz Media had projected sales of about NOK 35 million kr (approx. US$ 5,350,000 in June 1996).About Katz Media AS, Katz Media AS. Archived 1997-10-23.U.S. Dollar to Norwegian Krone Spot Exchange Rates for 1996 from the Bank of England, PoundSterling LIVE. Accessed 2018-06-18. Bandai supplied initial consoles as an OEM.Bandai and Katz Media announce cooperation to develop European Pippin Market, Katz Media SARL. 1997-01-29. Archived 1997-07-13. Katz Media partnered with Alps Electric to carry out final assembly and warehousing of future units in Ireland.Katz Media Announces Product Strategy and Cooperation with Strategic Partners for Pippin Platform, Katz Media SARL. 1996-09-18. Archived 1997-07-13. The Katz Media Player 2000 began shipping in Europe on March 17, 1997 with a focus on industry segments such as hotels, health care, travel, government, and education.Katz Media Begins Shipping Pippins in Europe, Katz Media SARL. 1997-03-17. Archived 1997-07-13. Accétéra handled distribution in the French mass retail market. During Marché international des Inforoutes et du Multimédia in May 1997, Groupe Arborescence announced a partnership with Katz Media to develop and market the Arborescence Network Centric computer for the Canadian market.Press: Arborescence launches the first Canadian-content Network Centric computer, Katz Media. 1997-05-22. Archived 1997-07-13. It was to have been based on the KMP 2000 with a custom Pippin Expansion Unit as part of a "Arborescence/Katz Media Pippin package" to be targeted towards Canadian consumers who did not have internet access. Though prototyped by Primetech Electronics,Arborescence Launches KMP 2000 with New Peripherals, The Arborescence Group. 1997-05-22. Archived 1998-01-29. it was not publicly released.Arborescence introduce the first COMBO Pippin doc/base module! by Joe Kudrna, O'Grady's PowerPage: Pippin NewsPage. 1997-08-03. Archived 1998-02-07. Titles '' being loaded into a KMP 2000.]] :See also: Category: Katz Media titles Katz Media SARL announced in September 1996 that leading publishers had committed to Pippinizing their existing multimedia titles, including:Katz Media Announces Partnerships with Multimedia Developers and Publishers for Pippin Platform, Katz Media SARL. 1996-09-18. Archived 1997-07-13. * Hachette Filipacchi Multimedia: ELLE Cooking. * Headbone Interactive: Elroy Goes Bugzerk, Elroy Hits the Pavement. * Microfolie's: Commander Blood series. * Montparnasse Multimedia SARL: Le Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, and Michel Ange series. * Navigo Multimedia GmbH: Janosch series. * Organa: Le Livre de Lulu, P.A.W.S.: Personal Automated Wagging System. * 3ème Vague: Katz Pippin Demo CD. * 7th Level GmbH: Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time. for the Katz Media Player 2000.]] Katz Media AS stated in 1997 that it had acquired publishing rights to about 40-50 CD-ROM titles, including: * ''DigiZINE (Win/Mac)[https://web.archive.org/web/19971023112604/http://www.katz.no:80/game6.htm DigiZINE], Katz Media AS. Archived 1997-10-23. * Interpose (DOS)[https://web.archive.org/web/19971023112523/http://www.katz.no:80/game1.htm Interpose], Katz Media AS. Archived 1997-10-23. * Grandpa & Me! (DOS)[https://web.archive.org/web/19971023112538/http://www.katz.no:80/game3.htm Grandpa & me!], Katz Media AS. Archived 1997-10-23. * Seaside Sam (Win 3.1/Mac)[https://web.archive.org/web/19971023112547/http://www.katz.no:80/game4.htm Seaside Sam], Katz Media AS. Archived 1997-10-23. * Twigger (DOS/Win 95)[https://web.archive.org/web/19980702003208/http://www.katz.no:80/game5.htm Twigger/Win95], Katz Media AS. Archived 1998-07-02. * Whitworth's Planet Earth (Win 3.1/Mac)[https://web.archive.org/web/19971023112531/http://www.katz.no:80/game2.htm Whitworth's Planet Earth], Katz Media AS. Archived 1997-10-23. However, only a small number were being developed for the Pippin platform, due to cost.This is a Norwegian game console developed for Apple (Norwegian) by Martin Gramnæs, PressFire. 2015-03-11. It is uncertain which titles had ever been ported or released as Katz Media was also seeking distribution partners at the time.Distributors Wanted, Katz Media AS. Archived 1997-10-23. “We had rights to about four or five titles, but it turned out to be very expensive to get companies to develop games for the console. I remember I was in touch with LucasArts at the time.” — Pål Høiås General Manager, Katz Media Closure With the return of Steve Jobs at Apple in 1997, further development on the platform was cancelled.For the good of the company? Five Apple products Steve Jobs killed by Casey Johnston, Ars Technica. 2011-08-25. A department was opened in Paris in an attempt to salvage the KMP 2000 business by utilizing the consoles in kiosks, but Katz Media went bankrupt in 1998. Only about 1,000 units are believed to have been sold by the time Katz Media's websites went down in 1999,[https://books.google.com/books?id=z2gWO6efsfEC&pg=PA64&dq=katz+media+player The Ultimate Guide to Classic Game Consoles (p.64-66)] by Kevin Baker, Google Books. 2013-05-23. Remaining inventory was sold off to DayStar Digital.Apple's Folly by Adam Volk, The Gameological Society. 2013-06. Katz Media Holding Limited has since been liquidated and is not affiliated with other companies presently operating under similar names. References See also *Groupe Arborescence *List of Pippin titles: Europe External links *Katz Media AS (archived 1998-07-02) *Katz Media AS at MobyGames *In The News at Katz Media SARL (archived 1998-04-15) *The PIPPIN from Katz Media (archived 1998-04-15) *Norwegian game console (Polish) at MojaNorwegia (2015-03-14) *Apple Pippin: Katz Media at Wikipedia Category:Katz Media